Dear colleagues, The ACM History Committee has created a new source of support for computer history, aimed naturally enough at research on activities in which ACM played some important role. The announcement will formally be launched when the <history.acm.org> site is updated, but the basic information is all here (see the announcement text below). The "back story" is this: ACM has devoted substantial resources in recent years to creating historical documentation (about its members, its prize winners, and about its organization -- both its central HQ and its three dozen SIG's). The ACM History Committee (which I recently joined) wants to make sure that these research materials actually get USED. As an experiment, ACM-HC created this "short term fellowship" to attract historians' attention to these materials as well as to support two projects directly. The awards are modest, $2,500; but the conditions are rather wide-open. You might travel to Stanford and use ACM-relevant materials there, or to Hagley, or anywhere (even CBI). There are also on-line materials, including some organizational records, conference proceedings, and a growing set of oral histories with ACM luminaries. (For some of these, you'll need access to the ACM Digital Library.) The deadline for proposals is SOON -- 30 April. Please have a look at the announcement below, or the formal announcement soon to appear on <history.acm.org>. Then, please frame a research project that has *some* significant ACM angle: for instance, you might investigate how an ACM conference sparked interest in a particular set of computing developments; or investigate one of the ACM Turing Award winners; or even examine some organizational aspect of ACM's universe of SIGS). Merely mentioning that someone was an ACM member is likely under-the-bar for significance. We hope to get a solid out-pouring of proposals. Especially if there are a good number of high-quality proposals, it's more likely that future funding would be continued -- possibly even expanded. Thanks for your attention! Best, Tom Misa ==================================== ACM History Committee Short-term Fellowships in ACM History The Association for Computing Machinery, founded in 1947, is the oldest and largest educational and scientific society dedicated to the computing profession, and today has members in more than 100 countries. To encourage historical research, the ACM History Committee announces a new program of short-term fellowships in ACM history. This year we plan to make up to two $2,500 awards to support historical research on the wide variety of ACM related activities, including ACM members, officers, and prize winners, as well as ACM as an organization. Successful candidates may be of any rank, from graduate students through senior researchers. To Apply: Applicants should send a 2-page CV as well as a 750-word project description that [a] describes the proposed research project; [b] identifies the importance of specific ACM historical materials, whether traditional archival collections or online historical materials (oral histories, digitized conference papers, ACM organizational records, et al.); and [c] discusses the project's planned outcome (e.g. conference paper, journal article, book or dissertation chapter, teaching resource, museum exhibit, etc.). In preparing a proposal, applicants should examine the extensive list of ACM historical resources posted at <history.acm.org> (click on ‘Links’ and choose ‘ACM Research Materials’). Other research materials relating to ACM's rich history may also be used. Applications should include a letter of endorsement from their home department or institution. Proposals are due by 30 April 2009. Proposals should be submitted as .pdf documents to <history-webmaster@acm.org>. Notification of awards will be made within six weeks. ============================================